Richardson endorsement does matter

It is easy to see why New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the nation’s only Hispanic governor and recent presidential candidate, endorsed Barack Obama over Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

Richardson, like Obama, knows what it means to be treated differently for looking different.

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So when Obama delivered this week's blunt, personal assessment of the state of race relations in the United States — in which he noted, “We may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction” — Richardson decided it was time to go public with his choice for president.

Obama, Richardson said, “is something special that the country needs right now.”

But as Richardson put his arm around Obama at a rally in Oregon, the Clinton campaign dismissed the endorsement as one whose value had passed. After all, 95 percent of the Hispanic electorate already has voted in this year’s primaries, and most of them went for Clinton.

The Clinton campaign ignored the fact that they, too, had eagerly sought the backing of the governor: a former congressman, diplomat and member of President Bill Clinton’s Cabinet.

If Richardson is viewed only as a Hispanic leader, then the Clinton campaign is correct in assessing that the governor’s influence in most of the remaining primary states is limited, because the number of Latino voters in those states is smaller.

But this endorsement requires a much broader view to see why it matters now, as well as for the November election if Obama wins the Democratic nomination.

First, Richardson is a big name among superdelegates, who may have to decide the almost-tied nomination fight. He has given the Obama campaign a morale boost, especially during a time when the Illinois senator has been dogged by controversy over the racially charged sermons of his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

To those Obama supporters who might have become skittish because Wright’s angry words undermined Obama’s optimistic message of “hope,” Richardson tried to offer reassurances about the candidate’s character. Obama could have given a “safe speech” but instead spoke directly to the issue, Richardson noted.

Second, by turning away from his friendship with former President Clinton, and against Sen. Clinton’s close victory in the New Mexico caucuses, Richardson signaled to other “superdelegates” that they can choose whomever they wish.

The Clinton campaign has been pressuring Obama’s “superdelegates” who come from areas won by the New York senator — such as House members from California and Texas — to follow the will of their voters.

Third, Richardson, who focused much of his campaign on national security issues, is telling voters that he is assured in how Obama will handle the presidency. Clinton won the Texas primary earlier this month partly by using a dark television ad that claimed she was the only one qualified to answer the national security “phone call” in the middle of the night.